Even if a strong climate agreement is sealed in Paris, the tens of thousands of tiny atolls strewn across the Pacific still face destruction at the hands of sea-level rise caused by global warming.

“Imagine living in a place where you know it’s going to go away someday, but you don’t know what day that wave’s going to come over and wash your home away,” said oceans expert Greg Stone, an executive vice president at Conservation International.

Now, in what is being called a “Marshall Plan” for the Pacific, a group of low-lying island nations is seeking to secure their very existence. The initiative, called “Pacific Rising,” would fuel investment, capacity-building and cultural preservation for these countries.

Will the plan succeed? Its backers say they don’t know what success looks like. What they do know is that action must start now.